Software programming is presently developing very rapidly, thereby leading to ever-enhancing functions and increasingly voluminous program codes. Hence, it is quite common for programs to be developed by programmers working in collaboration or even by a transnational team. In the aforesaid situations, it is important to record, compare, and control program code versions.
In a conventional version control system, a programmer has to perform a “check-out” procedure on the control system before setting out to amend/edit program code. Upon completion of the amendment, the programmer has to perform a “check-in” procedure for the control system to record the versions of programs. Hence, programmers make sure that the version of a program they are editing is the latest one by making reference to the version numeral of the program. However, in the situation where a program is developed by groups of persons working in collaboration, conventional version management takes place on a file-by-file basis when version control is involved, and the same file includes different functions of different aspects.